Free Web NovelChapter 31: [31]: The Sunken Sovereign, The Phase Two Wipe
Levi pushed both hands against the heavy coral doors of the throne room. They slowly ground open with a deep, echoing scrape that vibrated through his virtual boots. Water spilled out from the cracks, washing over his feet as he stepped inside.
The throne room was massive. The ceiling was lost in dark, murky shadows, and the floor was completely submerged in a foot of seawater. At the far end of the chamber, sitting on a throne constructed out of jagged obsidian and massive whalebones, was the final boss of the Nightmare instance.
[The Sunken Sovereign]
[Level: 25 | Boss]
[HP: 80,000 | ATK: 450 | DEF: 180]
"Eighty thousand health," Levi muttered, resting his silver scythe on his shoulder. "And a massive defense wall. The devs really didn’t want anyone clearing this in the first week."
He stood at the edge of the room and did what he always did. He ran the math.
He was Level 18. The boss was Level 25. That was a seven-level gap, which meant the game’s Level Suppression mechanic was going to punish him with a massive 35% damage reduction penalty.
’Okay, let’s break it down,’ Levi thought, his eyes tracking the boss as it slowly stood up from its throne. ’The Sovereign’s Defense is 180. My scythe ignores 15% of that. That drops the effective Defense down to 153.’
He checked his own offense. Thanks to his Sovereign’s Golden Gauntlets, his Total Attack was sitting at a massive 296.
296 Attack minus 153 Defense meant his raw damage per swing was exactly 143. Now, he had to factor in the brutal 35% suppression penalty. 143 multiplied by 0.65 resulted in roughly 92 Final Damage per basic strike.
He ran the numbers for his skill. 296 multiplied by the 1.8 Reaping Arc modifier gave him 532 raw damage. Subtracting the 153 Defense left 379. Applying the 35% penalty meant a clean skill hit would deal 246 Final Damage.
"Ninety-two damage a swing against an eighty-thousand health pool," Levi sighed, rolling his neck. "This is going to take forever."
He looked at the defensive side of the equation, and the numbers were terrifying. The boss had 450 Attack. Levi’s Defense was 91. If the Sovereign landed a clean hit, 450 minus 91 meant Levi would take 359 damage.
With his 1,020 Max HP, three direct hits would completely wipe him out. He couldn’t afford a single real mistake.
"Hollow’s Ward," Levi said.
He dumped 150 Mana from his 500 pool. A swirling, pitch-black shield of dark matter materialized around his avatar. The math for the shield was absolute: 500% of his 45 Intelligence plus 500 base HP gave him a solid 725 HP shield.
The Sunken Sovereign didn’t wait for him to buff up any further. The boss grabbed a massive, glowing crystalline trident that was leaning against the throne. It let out a deafening, gurgling roar that literally shook the water on the floor, and charged.
For a giant sea monster, it was uncomfortably fast. The Sovereign crossed the massive room in seconds and thrust the crystalline trident forward with terrifying speed.
Levi relied entirely on his 68 Speed. He didn’t try to Phantom Step; he needed to save his mana. He planted his back foot, twisted his torso violently to the right, and brought the haft of his scythe up to deflect the thrust.
The heavy crystalline trident collided with his weapon. The VR pain engine sent a harsh vibration up his arms, but his speed allowed him to turn a direct hit into a glancing blow.
The system calculated the parry. A glancing blow reduced the incoming damage by 50%.
359 potential damage was halved to 179. The impact slammed directly into Levi’s dark-matter shield.
[-179]
His 725 HP shield cracked slightly, dropping to 546 HP. His actual health bar remained perfectly untouched at 1,020.
Levi didn’t back off. He immediately countered.
"Reaping Arc!"
He burned 10 Mana. The silver blade of his scythe erupted in bloody red light. He swept it horizontally, carving through the heavy water and smashing into the Sovereign’s scaled ribs.
[-246]
He followed up with a rapid flurry of basic physical attacks. He used the momentum of the skill to spin the scythe, hacking at the boss’s side.
[-92] [-92] [-92]
The jagged edge of the scythe caught on the boss’s thick scales. The tiny bleeding teardrop icon popped up over the Sovereign’s head, instantly ticking for 5 true damage per second.
The boss roared in annoyance and swept the trident in a massive horizontal cleave. Levi ducked under it, the crystalline blades missing his head by inches. He popped up and delivered another basic strike to the boss’s kneecap.
[-92]
He kept swinging, silently praying for the 5% stun passive from his Golden Gauntlets to trigger. But the RNG gods weren’t smiling on him yet.
For the first two minutes, the fight fell into a grueling, hyper-focused rhythm. Levi chipped away at the massive health pool, relying heavily on the 5 DMG/sec bleed that completely bypassed the boss’s 180 Defense and the annoying 35% suppression penalty. He dodged, parried, and wove his Reaping Arcs flawlessly.
When the boss’s health finally hit exactly 40,000—the 50% mark—the entire dynamic of the fight violently changed.
The Sunken Sovereign didn’t just swing its weapon. It leaped backward, creating twenty yards of distance, and raised its crystalline trident high into the air. The glowing blue coral on the walls flared brilliantly.
A system warning flashed across Levi’s vision.
[Warning: The Sunken Sovereign is casting Abyssal Geysers.]
The water covering the floor of the throne room started to bubble aggressively.
"Oh, come on," Levi groaned, recognizing the mechanic. Phase Two.
The room instantly turned into a deadly minefield. Massive columns of highly pressurized water erupted from the floor grates. They shot up to the ceiling randomly, creating a chaotic grid of instant-death zones. If one of those geysers hit him, the environmental damage would bypass his defense entirely.
Levi couldn’t just run. The geysers were spawning too fast, cutting off his physical escape routes.
"Phantom Step!"
He dumped 20 Mana, his body dissolving into dark shadow just as a geyser exploded directly beneath his boots. He reappeared five meters to the left in a temporary safe zone. But before he could even catch his breath, the water under his new position started bubbling.
He didn’t have time to wait for the 15-second cooldown on Phantom Step. He sprinted forward, splashing through the water, desperately weaving between the erupting columns of pressure.
He managed to dodge three geysers, but the ambient AoE damage from the splashing water was completely unavoidable.
The boiling hot, pressurized water rained down on him. The ambient damage chewed right through the remaining 546 HP of his Hollow’s Ward.
The dark-matter shield shattered like glass with a loud, digital crunch.
Levi was completely exposed.
The Sunken Sovereign didn’t wait for the geysers to finish. The boss charged right through the water columns, entirely immune to its own magic, and thrust the trident directly at Levi’s chest.
Levi tried to parry again, but his boot slipped on the wet marble. His reaction was a millisecond too slow.
The crystalline trident slammed squarely into his Obsidian Carapace.
The VR helmet simulated a brutal, blunt-force impact that knocked the virtual wind out of his lungs. He was thrown backward, skidding across the flooded floor.
The game processed the clean hit. Boss ATK (450) minus Levi DEF (91) equaled exactly 359 damage.
[-359]
Levi’s health bar took a massive dive, plummeting from 1,020 down to 661.
"That actually hurt," Levi grunted, scrambling to his feet before another geyser could erupt under him.
He couldn’t afford to take another direct hit like that. He immediately opened his quick-menu and toggled on [Siphon Aura].
The warm green light wrapped around his boots. His mana began draining by 2 points every second, but a bright green [+15] instantly floated up from his avatar.
The healing was active, but it was slow. 15 HP a second wasn’t going to instantly fix a 359 damage deficit. The battle devolved into a desperate, razor-thin marathon of endurance.
He checked his mana pool. Between the Reaping Arcs, the Phantom Step, the initial Hollow’s Ward, and now the constant drain of Siphon Aura, he was sitting at a miserable 250 out of 500 Mana.
He pulled a top-tier mana potion from his belt, popped the cork with his thumb, and chugged the bitter blue liquid while running sideways to dodge another geyser. His mana spiked back up, buying him a little more time.
The geyser phase finally ended, the bubbling water subsiding into a calm pool.
The boss roared and charged again.
Levi tightened his grip on his scythe. He had no shield, half a mana bar, and his health was sitting dangerously in the mid-600s. The 35% suppression penalty was making every single swing feel like he was hitting a brick wall.
But he wasn’t going to wipe. He didn’t come all this way and spend all his gold just to die to a math check.
"Let’s see who breaks first," Levi said, sprinting directly toward the massive sea monster.
He ducked under a sweeping trident strike, entirely relying on his 68 Speed to stay alive, and buried the jagged edge of his silver scythe back into the Sovereign’s ribs. The bleed ticked. The health bar moved a fraction of a millimeter. The grueling war of attrition dragged on.
